Songs and Wisdom

Read it: Psalm 23; Proverbs 1; Job 38; Ecclesiastes 12

Open a Bible in the middle and you land in a different kind of writing. Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs are mostly poetry. They don’t move the story forward the way Kings does. Instead, they show what it felt like to live inside the story: to trust God, to fail, to suffer, to wonder what life is for.

Hebrew poetry doesn’t rhyme the way English songs often do. Its main tool is parallelism: saying something, then saying it again in a fresh way, so the two lines echo each other. “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters” (Psalm 23:2). Once you notice it, you’ll see it everywhere. Here are four windows into this part of the Bible, beginning with its most famous song.

The Psalms were Israel’s songbook and prayer book, 150 of them, many written by David. Psalm 23 is probably the best-known poem in the world, and it was written by a man who had been a shepherd: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

A shepherd in the hills of Israel led his flock to grass and water, protected them from wild animals with a club (the rod) and guided them with a crook (the staff). Sheep can’t survive alone. Notice what happens at the darkest point: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Psalm 23:4). Up to here David speaks about God, “He”. In the valley he starts speaking to Him, “You”. The psalm ends at home: “I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6).

Not every psalm is calm. Many are laments, honest complaints to God: “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1). The Psalms give you words for every feeling you will ever have, and permission to bring all of them to God.

Wisdom: Proverbs 1

Proverbs is mostly written as a parent talking to a teenager: “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother” (Proverbs 1:8). Many of its sayings are linked with Solomon. Its first big lesson is this: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline” (Proverbs 1:7). That “fear” isn’t terror. It means awe, taking God seriously. Real wisdom starts with knowing you aren’t the centre of the universe.

Proverbs 1 goes straight to peer pressure: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them” (Proverbs 1:10), then describes a gang luring a young man into crime with promises of easy money. It’s surprisingly current. One thing to remember: proverbs are wise general truths about how life usually works, not guarantees for every case. That’s why the Bible also includes Job.

Suffering: Job 38

Nobody knows who wrote Job or when. It tells of a man who was “blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil” (Job 1:1), who lost his wealth, his children and his health. At first he worshipped: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). But as the pain went on, Job cried out, argued and demanded that God explain Himself. His friends came with a tidy answer: you must have done something to deserve this. Job knew he hadn’t.

Finally, in chapter 38, “the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1). But God didn’t give Job the explanation he had asked for. He asked him questions instead: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4). Then He took Job on a tour of creation: the sea, the stars, the lions, the wild donkeys, the ostrich, all held and cared for by God. It sounds harsh, but it isn’t a brush-off. Job is being shown how vast and good the God he is dealing with really is. And Job, who never learned why he suffered, came out saying, “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You” (Job 42:5).

Then a twist. God said to the friends, “you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has” (Job 42:7). God was angrier with the neat theology than with Job’s raw honesty. If you are suffering, you are allowed to cry out to God.

Meaning: Ecclesiastes 12

Ecclesiastes is narrated by “the Teacher”, traditionally identified with Solomon. Many scholars, including many evangelicals, think a later writer used Solomon’s voice; Christians hold both views, and the message is the same either way. The Teacher tries everything “under the sun”: pleasure, work, money, learning, success. His verdict: “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!” (Ecclesiastes 12:8). The Hebrew word means breath or vapour: here and gone, impossible to grab.

But the book ends by speaking to the young: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). And its conclusion: “Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). A life lived only “under the sun” ends in vapour. A life lived before God has weight.

Where Jesus is in this

After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples that “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). He took the shepherd of Psalm 23 as His own job description: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He even prayed a psalm of lament on the cross, crying out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46), the opening line of Psalm 22. He went through the valley of the shadow of death for us, so that He can walk with us through ours.

Proverbs said wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD; Paul says that in Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Job longed to see God, and the Teacher longed for something that lasts. Both longings are answered in Jesus, God come close.

Think about it: Job’s friends had tidy answers, and God said they were wrong. Have you ever given someone who was hurting a tidy answer? What might it look like instead to sit with them, and to bring your own honest questions to God?

Go deeper: The God of All Comfort by Hannah Whitall Smith — Smith tells how Psalm 23, a verse she had known since childhood and almost dismissed as too ordinary, flooded her with comfort when she needed it most, and argues that if the Lord calls Himself our Shepherd, He takes on everything a good shepherd does. Start with chapter 4, “The Lord Our Shepherd”.